New Years Letter 2016
“Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” – Habakkuk 3:2.
My deepest ambition for 2016 is to help make the God of the Bible famous. He is famous in a sense, it is true; He is the most hated person on the planet. When the Beatles made the claim in the 1960s that they were “more popular than Jesus” they were no doubt correct. When the Midnight Cry comes things will change. Not that all humankind will adore the true God. But they will certainly know about Him. Coming ahead is the combination of unprecedented wrath from God joined by amazing mercy. The fear of the Lord is going to return to the church and also to the world.
As we welcome the New Year in, I think that I am possibly the most sobered of any time in recent years. Generally, the situation in the entire world has never looked so dire. The outlook has never been so bleak. But should this surprise us? If we are in the very last days – as I have been claiming for a long time, nothing should surprise us.
Particularly, this has been a sobering year for me. Two very close friends have been taken to Heaven. First, John Paul Jackson, and, second, Dr. Billy T. Ball. The death of Billy is no surprise; he was 88. The death of John Paul at 65 is something I am still struggling to come to terms with. What is interesting to me is that these two men had in common an unusual prophetic gift. But from two angles. John Paul based a lot of his prophecies on what I would call the rhema word, Billy Ball was entirely a logos word man. Many of their prophecies coalesced but both agreed on the premise that the Midnight Cry of Matthew 25:6 precedes the actual Second Coming of Jesus by a period of time during which the church is awakened which in turn will precipitate a revival that spreads around the entire world.
But there were two other things John Paul and Billy Ball had in common: they each believed they would be major figures on the national, if not world, scene in the last days. Depending how you define “major”, I would have thought that both of these men died feeling unfulfilled. They were used of God in their day, yes, but not to the extent they hoped for.
I am having to come to terms with how good, honorable and respectable men could get it so wrong when it came to their own expectations. And yet the great Jonathan Edwards sincerely thought that what he was witnessing in his day was precisely what we now call “last day ministries”.
I am on record for believing that the Midnight Cry – not the Second Coming – will take place while I am alive. We will certainly see!
I will have two books coming out in 2016: Pigeon Religion – which purports to show the counterfeit vis-à-vis the genuine Holy Spirit; and The Midnight Cry – my interpretation of the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt.25:1-13).
I am extremely grateful to God for good health and stamina. 2015 has by far been the busiest and most challenging year of my life. 2016 will likely be equal to this, such beginning with a ministry for the third year in a row at Kensington Temple, London (late January to early July). But I have promised Louise I will cut down a lot.
God bless you all. I would be so honored if you would put us on your prayer list. Will you? Louise, TR, Annette, Toby and Timothy and Melissa and Rex join me in wishing you a wonderful year to come.
“In wrath remember mercy”.
Warmest greetings.
R T Psalm 84:11*
* For some reason I began using a new verse alongside my name, having used Romans 8:28 for so long.